Mayor focuses on crime prevention in State of the City address

The speech comes after the city's 30th murder of 2014 and criticism from city residents living in affluent neighborhoods.

WMAR

WMAR

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WMAR

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BALTIMORE - Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake started Monday's State of the City address by assuring a better Baltimore is within reach, telling city residents, "We're making progress everyday."

The city saw its 30th homicide of the year just a day before the address.

"It is something that is on my mind every hour of everyday," Mayor Rawlings-Blake said of public safety.

She talked about implementing new initiatives to cut back on crime, specifically Operation Ceasefire and its effort to target violent individuals.

"If we stay silent when a life is lost, we suggest that that life has no value. And I know that we can do better. The bottom line: the loss of life, the violence, the crime, it's unacceptable," she said.

Although she promises to take all necessary actions to fight crime, she says it's a joint effort between the people of Baltimore, city government, and police.

"We're going to be tough on crime, make no mistake about it," the mayor said. "But, we're not going to do it at the expense of our neighbors. We can't allow citizens to feel mistreated in their own communities, and then expect those same communities to work with us to solve crimes."

The mayor focused on the importance of reporting crime and says last year we saw a 300 percent increase in people reporting what they knew and what they saw.

According to the mayor, the city needs to do better, because the citizens deserve better.

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.